Lloyd's Market Recruitment
Lloyd's Market Recruitment is a major part of the High Finance Group business. Relevant clients in this area include:
Corporation of Lloyd's
Hiscox
Markel
Advent
Catlin
Beazley
Amlin
Financial Services Authority
ACE Plc
Liberty International Underwriters
Canopius
Relevant Lloyd's Market news:
UPDATE 2-Amlin profit soars; mulls larger buys in H2
Mon Mar 1, 2010 11:07am GMT
By Lorraine Turner
From the Reuters website
LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Amlin Plc (AML.L), the largest group in the Lloyd's of London insurance market [LOL.UL], smashed expectations with a fourfold increase in full-year profit it will continue on the acquisition trail in 2010.
Amlin Chief Executive Charles Philipps said the company will look to further expansion in the second half of the year after completing the integration of Fortis Corporate Insurance, following its $500 million takeover in June. [ID:nL3324685]
"By the time we get to the half year, we'll be more open to larger acquisitions, if we find the right thing," Philipps told Reuters on Monday.
"We would look at further expansion in continental Europe, in the UK, and sooner or later we will turn our minds to the U.S.," he added.
The combination of a benign hurricane season and stronger investment returns on the back of rising financial markets lifted 2009 profits for reinsurers.
UK-based Amlin's pretax profit jumped to 509.1 million pounds ($775 million) in 2009 from 121.6 million a year before, profiting from a significant reserve releases of 174 million.
Market expectations had ranged between 374 million pounds and 476 million, with the consensus at 431.9 million, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of seven analysts.
Meanwhile Bermuda-based Hiscox (HSX.L), which offers a range of insurance cover from firework displays to fine art and racehorses as well as reinsurance, also reported a record profit ahead of expectations at 320.6 million pounds, compared with 105.2 million in 2008. [ID:nLDE6200I4]
GREEN SHOOTS
Amlin said it will increase its dividend, even if it experiences a higher-than-normal level of catastrophes. Both Amlin and Hiscox hiked their payouts by 18 percent, to 20 pence and 15 pence per share respectively.
"Record results once again prove Amlin to be the class act of the sector," said analyst Christian Stobbs at KBC Peel Hunt, noting the group had delivered a strong performance across all divisions.
Amlin's Philipps said there were still attractive margins in the catastrophe reinsurance market, despite rates coming off their peak.
"We would expect some upward momentum particularly in the U.S. property/casualty industry, although it's too easy to call when that will be, and we are seeing some green shoots in our UK commercial business," he said.
However the group warned that increased competition will follow in the short term on the back of the good results this year.
Shares in Amlin were up 2.7 percent to 405.5 pence at 0958 GMT while shares in Hiscox rose 0.7 percent to 358.1 pence. (Editing by Mark Potter and David Holmes) ($1=.6569 Pound)
Click here to view the 'UPDATE 2-Amlin profit soars; mulls larger buys in H2' article on the Reuters website.
Davos 2010: Bankers hit out at regulation plans
Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:31 GMT
From the BBC news website
The World Economic Forum in Davos has begun with bankers and regulators clashing on plans for more regulation.
"We need good regulation, better regulation but not more regulation," Lord Levene, chairman of the insurance market Lloyd's of London said.
Barclays head Bob Diamond also suggested that more rules would drive banks out of London and New York.
The debate comes after US President Barack Obama proposed breaking up banks that are "too big to fail".
"We need a strong financial centre in New York and a strong financial centre in London," said Mr Diamond. "This is a time when isolated actions in the UK and US are not constructive."
He added: "I have seen no evidence ... to suggest that shrinking banks and making banks smaller and narrower is the answer."
Mr Obama's proposals, which need congressional approval, would prevent banks or financial institutions that own banks from owning hedge funds and bar them from proprietary trading - investing to make a profit for themselves rather than on behalf of customers.
Treasury minister Lord Myners, shadow chancellor George Osborne and the head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, have endorsed those plans.
'Rules are good'
Lord Levene told attendees that more regulation in the US and UK may drive banks and businesses to emerging financial centres - such as Singapore, Shanghai and Zurich.
He pointed to the huge influx of business into London after the US passed the Sarbanes-Oxley act following the Enron and Worldcom scandals. The move, aimed at holding company directors to account, led to higher costs and an increased threat of legal action for firms listed in New York, he said.
That led to record listings on the the London Stock Exchange in the years leading to the financial crisis.
"In the City of London, we want to build statues to Mr Sarbanes and Mr Oxley for all the business they gave us," he joked.
Lord Levene also criticised efforts to curb large bank bonuses - a source of public outcry in the US and UK. "Compensation is a side issue," he said.
'Rules are good'
But Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who took part in the same CNBC-hosted debate "The Next Global Crisis", disagreed that financial institutions should be left to make their own reforms.
"Rules are a good idea," he said.
He acknowledged the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley act on US companies, but said that it was a huge step to avoid future crises that regulators in London and Washington now agreed on more regulation.
"You can't play mommy and daddy against each other now," Mr Frank said.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Chinese central bank said that weak growth was the biggest threat to the global economy.
"The real risk for the global economy is weak and volatile growth," said Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China.
"Even by the end of 2010, US GDP will be at the same levels as it was in 2007. Three years gone for free, economically."
Pascal Lamy, the head of the World Trade Organisation, told the BBC that, without the growth from emerging economies, the global recession would have been much worse.
"Frankly, we should be happy that some places are growing faster than others," he said.
"Thank God we now have [countries such as China, Brazil, India and Indonesia] pulling much more than in the past."
Click here to view the 'Davos 2010: Bankers hit out at regulation plans' article on the BBC news website.
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